I've been looking into enabling audio recording in VMware View Desktops. This would be useful as it would allow the use of applications such as Skype and TeamSpeak within VMware View published desktops.

By default, the VMware View Agent which is installed within the desktop operating system installs the VMware Virtual Audio Driver. The VMware Virtual Audio Driver enables audio playback from the View Desktop to be played through the VMware View Client. However, the VMware Virtual Audio Driver does not enable analog audio input from the View Client to the View desktop. With the VMware Virtual Audio Driver, audio recording within the View Desktop from an audio source connected to the View Client, such as a microphone, is not possible and applications that rely on Audio input will not function correctly.

This latest version builds on unique, patented virtual appliance architecture to deliver a powerful, feature-filled, easy to use backup solution for virtual servers at a fraction of the cost of competitive alternatives. Designed from the ground up as an exclusively virtual solution for the virtual environment, additional functionality in PHD Virtual Backup v6.0 includes:

PHD Instant Recovery for VMware: Eliminate downtime and meet SLA’s

Make any application available as quickly as possible in the event of a failure. PHD Instant Recovery gets you back up and running in less than 3 minutes.

Extending the flexibility of PHD Virtual Backup, full/incremental mode is ideal for organizations leveraging third party tools to copy backup files to the Cloud, or Tape, or those utilizing a hardware deduplication appliance or CIFS as a backup target.

Application Aware Backups: Ensure Application Consistent Backup

Take an application aware backup for any application every time. Maintain full confidence that backups of your mission critical applications will complete without fail.

Enhanced File Recovery: Dramatically Simplified File Recovery

Consume fewer resources and take advantage of unprecedented flexibility with enhanced file recovery.

Simplify and streamline backup infrastructure management even further with new VBA Tools like Health Monitor.

How does PHD Virtual Backup v6.0 deliver value compared to other backup products? The main points are listed below although there are more!

PHD Virtual installs and configures in 10 minutes or less sporting one of the easiest installations for a ranking backup product.

It also has menus that are integrated into your existing hypervisor client and an intuitive, wizard-driven interface. This means you don’t need to read the documentation. It’s just that easy!

One of the best features of PHD Virtual is their unique architecture! You can easily deploy a new Virtual Backup Appliance (VBA) to handle additional workload and set up a new backup job takes only minutes.

PHD Virtual Backup performs much faster on incremental backups than most other vendors maximizing speed by leveraging the best technologies available, including hot-add from VMware, change block tracking, and deduplication.

Instant VM Recovery is a great new feature of 6.0 allowing you to get back up and running in less than 3 minutes while File Recovery options provide access to your backed up files, folders, and application objects within seconds.

Virtual Backup Appliance also mean there are no management servers, proxy servers, or data servers (usually required by many other solutions)

PHD Virtual costs up to 40% less than its competitors while delivering product value to rival any other vendor!

This book is all about VMware View 5.1 and ThinApp 4.7.2 administration - and it takes in a wide scope of complementary technologies from the likes of Teradici, BitDefender and F5 Networks. Towards the end the focus switches away from virtual desktops to look at the future of end-user computing including VMware’s ThinApp Factory and Horizon Application Manager.

This book is a not for profit venture. The monies raised by the sale of the book will be donated in full to the work of UNICEF. UNICEF carries out work across the globe that benefits all children regardless of their social, ethnic, religious or geographical location. It’s our sincere hope that people will use the legitimate sources for acquiring this book – and by doing so support the work of UNICEF.

I have been made aware by StratoGen that they are seeking beta testers to participate in the StratoGen Beta program for the upcoming VMware vCloud Director V5.1. They are looking for beta testers that can really push this new platform to the limits. In particularthey are looking for power users familiar with building complex environments using VPNs, inter-vApp networking and tiered storage.

The original announcement follows:

StratoGen are pleased to announce the start of our VCD51 beta program which will provide valuable feedback on our implementation of the next version of VMware vCloud Director.

Beta testing underpins all of our product launches and is crucial in our ability to provide services that lead the hosted VMware market whilst remaining highly resilient. In this program we are particularly interested in working with experienced “power users” who are familiar with VPNs, complex internetworking and able to utilize tiered SAN storage.

By participating in this program you agree to be contacted to provide feedback on usability and platform performance. In return you will be one of the first to use this exciting new technology, and allocated temporary resources on our USA based enterprise platform.

StratoGen is a leading VMware hosting provider with award winning cloud platforms in both the USA and UK.

Yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of having to go through my email to find an email I wrote back in February 2011 in which I detailed the steps required in order to perform an offline update of VMware ESXi hosts via PowerCLI. Had I posted the steps here on this site at the time, it would have saved me a lot of pain in trying to retrieve the email from an Enterprise Vault archive! So, as I have learned my lesson, I am posting the steps required to update ESXi from PowerCLI.

I am happy to report that I have managed to get the VMware View PCoIP Client to work on openSUSE Linux 12 with the GNOME 3 desktop environment. The first client I tried was the VMware View Open Client, which is an open source project. However the View Open Client does not support PCoIP and only connects to the View desktops using RDP. As I am not a fan of RDP, I was keen on getting PCoIP to work.

Some background as to why I needed the PCoIP View Client to work on Linux:

Generally for remote access to my lab, I use the VMware View PCoIP Client for Windows, Android and iOS (on the iPad). VMware has made the PCoIP client available on all of these platforms, but no Linux PCoIP client has been released. This article should get you up and running, but bear in mind that it is not supported by VMware.